[39] Ta Tsing Leu Lee, sec. cccxxix. p. 357.
[40] Ibid. sec. cccxxvii. p. 356.
[41] Laws of Manu, viii. 267 sq. Cf. Gautama, xii. 8 sqq. It is also said that “a once-born man (a Sûdra), who insults a twice-born man with gross invective, shall have his tongue cut out; for he is of low origin” (ibid. viii. 270. See also Institutes of Vishnu, v. 23; Gautama, xii. 1; Âpastamba, ii. 10. 27. 14).
[42] Keyser, Efterladte Skrifter, ii. pt. i. 295.
[43] Hunter, Exposition of Roman Law, p. 164. Mommsen, Römisches Strafrecht, p. 786, n. 3.
[44] Digesta, xlvii. 10. 15. 35. Hunter, op. cit. p. 165.
[45] Gotlands-Lagen, i. 19. 37.
The condemnation of such conduct as is offensive to other persons’ self-regarding pride includes condemnation of pride itself, when displayed in an excessive degree; whereas the opposite disposition—modesty—which implies regard for other people’s “self-feeling,” is praised as a virtue. The Fijians say of a boasting person, “You are like the kaka (parrot); you only speak to shout your own name.”[46] On the other hand, among the Tonga Islanders “a modest opinion of oneself is esteemed a great virtue, and is also put in practice.”[47] Confucius taught that humility belongs to the characteristics of a superior man.[48] Such a man, he said, is modest in his speech, though he exceeds in his actions;[49] he has dignified ease without pride, whereas the mean man has pride without a dignified ease;[50] he prefers the concealment of his virtue, when it daily becomes more illustrious, whereas the mean man seeks notoriety when he daily goes more and more to ruin.[51] So also humility has a distinguished place in the teachings of Lao-tsze:—“I have three precious things which I hold fast and prize, namely, compassion, economy, and humility”; “He who knows the glory, and at the same time keeps to shame, will be the whole world’s valley …, eternal virtue will fill him, and he will return home to Taou.”[52] In the Book of the Dead the soul of the ancient Egyptian pleads, “I am not swollen with pride.”[53] According to Zoroastrianism, the sin of pride has been created by Ahriman.[54] Overbearingness was censured in ancient Scandinavia,[55] Greece,[56] and Rome. During our prosperity, says Cicero, “we ought with great care to avoid pride and arrogance.”[57] The Hebrew prophets condemned not only pride but eminence, because an eminent man is apt to be proud.[58] We read in the Talmud:—“He who humiliates himself will be lifted up; he who raises himself up will be humiliated. Whosoever runs after greatness, greatness runs away from him; he who runs from greatness, greatness follows him.”[59] Christianity enjoined humility as a cardinal duty in every man.[60] In the Koran it is said, “God loves not him who is proud, and boastful.”[61] Pride has thus come to be stigmatised not only as a vice, but as a sin of great magnitude. One reason for this is that it is regarded as even more offensive to the “self-feeling” of a great god or the Supreme Being than it is to that of a man. But pride must also appear as irreligious arrogance to those who maintain that man is by nature altogether corrupt, and that everything good in him is a gift of God.[62]
[46] Williams and Calvert, op. cit. p. 107.
[47] Mariner, op. cit. ii. 164.